Donna Karan Finally Gives Up Fur

PETA is reporting today that designer Donna Karan has announced that her fall 2009 lines will be fur-free and that she has “no plans” to use fur in the future. This announcement came days after PETA launched their (now offline) DonnaKaranBunnyButcher.com Web site and after fashion guru Tim Gunn sent Karan and designer Giorgio Armani a video that he narrated for PETA showing animals skinned alive for their fur and urged them to shun fur in their designs.

“Any designer in the fashion industry who does not want to watch the PETA video and see exactly what happens to animals and how they’re treated and how the product that they use comes to the marketplace, I believe, is egregiously irresponsible,” said Gunn in an interview about the video.

PETA and other activists have been working for nearly a year on the Donna Karan campaign ― protesting outside her boutiques, crashing her runway show and exposing her cruel use of fur online. PETA spokesperson Michael McGraw said that Armani and Karan were singled out because “they have both made pledges to be fur-free, but have gone back on their word when it comes to rabbits, as if rabbits aren’t fur-bearing animals.”

In response to the claims, an Armani rep said, “Despite the fact that we have previously sold products made from animal fur, the Armani Group has now decided to renounce making such items with the exception of those in rabbit fur, the by-product of an animal that is a staple source of food… We must stress that PETA is exploiting our name to stir up public opinion without acknowledging that we actually include very few fur items in our collections, while certain competitors of ours base much of their business on furs.”

Please contact Armani to tell him that while the meat of gentle rabbits killed for their fur in China is sold to be eaten, the suffering they endure is exactly the same.